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Wednesday December 11, 2013 5:44 AM

We know that about 20,000 pseudo-, semi- and real journalists “cover” Washington. We know that
mid-December is slow-time in the nation’s capital as the public turns its attention to the
holidays. But big news or no, the scriveners tending political websites must still, as they say, “
feed the beast” and take it out for a walk three times a day.

Hence the to-do about Vice President Joe Biden’s latest “gaffe,” an alleged sexist remark in
Tokyo. Biden had asked women at an Internet company, “Do your husbands like you working full
time?"

That was the length and breadth of it. I consider my sensitivity to patriarchal cuts fairly
high-tuned, and honest, the comment would not have set off a bleep. After all, Japan remains a
culture in which 60 percent of women leave their jobs when they have children. Presumably, their
husbands are involved in the decision.

One imagines that husband-wife talks on whether a mother of young kids should work outside the
house are held in Topeka, as well. The issue goes beyond concern about male dominance in
decision-making. Rather, it centers on who will care for the little ones and create a civilized
home life, which some people still care about.

It doesn’t have to be the woman. I was reading this weekend about female hotshots on Wall
Street, flying out of the house before dawn and jetting off to every continent while their highly
competent husbands stay at home, getting breakfast into the children and dropping them off at day
care before they pick up the dry cleaning. There are about five of those.

Many more couples in this country perform a stressful balancing act for sharing the duties —
both breadwinning and domestic. If the workplace offered more time flexibility and day care were
easier to find, the quality of American family life would improve considerably.

The question Biden might ask women in Topeka is whether their husbands would mind their
not working the job they do — in addition to handling most of the child care and
homemaking. And that’s assuming there is a husband, which in America is more and more not the case
for mothers of young children.

The chief reason for Biden’s trip to Tokyo was security-related, to help ease tensions among
Japan, South Korea and China. The side trip to the Internet firm was to show support for a Japanese
government plan to draw more women into the workplace.

Japan is experiencing a sharp drop in population, and women could ease the resulting labor
shortage. Hence, the Japanese government has launched a program to help families balance the
demands of parenting and work.

Which brings us back to Washington, passionately engaged in dissecting a “gaffe” unnoticed by
most of the U.S. public. On CNN, Newt Gingrich denounced Biden for launching a “war on women,” and
Democratic National Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz punched back against Republicans.
Meanwhile,
The Washington Post produced a fevered headline: “Out-of-context Biden comment to working
women in Tokyo sparks firestorm back home.”

The quality of the umbrage was so flimsy that the posters quickly employed the time-honored
trick of finding significance in the fact that
they were discussing something of no consequence. Fine, keeps them busy.

But the giant stresses of juggling home life with job life remain an enormous concern from
Topeka to Tacoma, Tempe to Tampa. Highlighting a government plan for easing those strains was what
brought Biden to meet female office workers in Tokyo.

Let’s make note of that plan — if only to fill the time as our political media wait to hear what
crazy thing Biden will say next.